Space combat
Weapon systems Aetherian ships typically have 5 major weapon groupings: Primary weapons Primary weapons are nearly always a spinal mounted coil gun. These weapons are so deadly that they can destroy most ships (depending on size of both the round and target in question) in a single hit. Secondary weapons Secondary armament is the second most powerful weapon on a ship. These weapons are typically turreted. In the example of the Everest class dreadnought it uses two triple gunned 150mm turrets where most ships tend to have several secondary weapons. The commanding officer of a ship usually commands the ship to the best situation to take advantage of these armaments after the primary weapons have been spent Tertiary weapons Tertiary weapons account for all weapons below the secondary armament in importance but have a caliber above point-defense. These weapons are usually left for the none-primary helms officer to operate. Normally these weapons are in the 80mm caliber and include any and all laser weapons not used as point-defense Point-defense Point-defense on ships are entirely relegated to screening incoming missiles and occasionally fighters as well. Point-defense is nearly ineffective against any ship as armor or shields would block them nearly completely. Missiles Missiles are typically used in a spam style attack. With missiles becoming cheaper and cheaper and point-defense becoming more and more accurate firing large amounts of missiles becomes necessary. Ships fire missiles from stern to bow as this creates a tighter cluster of missiles making it harder for an enemy to shoot down all the missiles. Missiles use solid fuel boosters in order to move with a greater ΔV because of this once they're fired they cannot slow down or fully reorient its course. Combat ranges Ranges-Diagram 1 The major ranges are long ranges of over 50 kilometers, mid ranges of 50 kilometers to 10 kilometers (however largely takes place in the 20-25 kilometer range) and close ranges of under 10 kilometers also known as knife fights or broadsides or shanking zone. Long range-Diagram 2 In the over 50 kilometers range spinal mounted weapons are one of the few weapons that are effective. At such distances it becomes easier to dodge as slugs, or missiles travel across this vast range. The larger the ship, the longer the coil gun it can mount which makes the round faster and harder to dodge even at range, this is why large capital ships are able to shoot at targets from even farther ranges. Mid range-Diagram 3 At mid range ships are able to unleash their secondary and sometimes tertiary weapons and their missiles. At the 10-50 kilometer range missiles can move fast enough to hit a target before a point-defense screen can take them all out. As ATD's become more and more accurate ships attempt to take another by surprise by jumping as close as possible to the other ship and blast it with as much of their arsenal as possible before it had time to react. Close range-Diagram 4 Though extremely rare close range encounters within 10 kilometers are possible and crews are trained in the event that such a battle might occur. At such close range ships are expected to level their entire arsenal at one another, firing every gun and slugging it out till one ship is completely destroyed. Because of how difficult it is to get into such close range and that any fight at such close range would be incredibly destructive to both sides this style of combat is avoided at any cost; it is better to try and snipe at distance where you don't risk taking mortal damage. Missiles and point-defense weapons-Diagram 5 Point-defense guns are used to intercept incoming missiles and under 50 kilometers they have a 10% success rate bypassing point-defense screens when shot in groups of 12 or more. Within 25 kilometers they have a 25% success rate. Under 20 kilometers they have a 35% success rate and getting to within 10 kilometers gets a 50% success rate. Serpent Tactics Unlike Aetherian tactics and weapons Serpent employs a much more hard headed tactic of charting strait at the enemy line and employs the use of energy weapons. Long range Serpent tactics-Diagram 6 at the over 50 kilometer range Serpent ships use laser cannons to harass heavy ships and incapacitate smaller ships. They also employ plasma torpedoes, a solid projectile that at close ranges ignites into a ball of plasma in order to blast apart a target. They can travel over vast distances, which makes them easy prey for point-defense but once they enter the 5 kilometer range they bust into a ball of plasma and can no longer be intercepted by point-defense fire. Close range Serpent tactics-Diagram 7 At close range Serpent ships use their plasma cannons which easily decimate Aetherian ships. These weapons become effective at 15 kilometers but grow exponentially more powerful as they get closer. Assaulting worlds and capital ship use As one might expect from Aetherian ships being set up around one large gun defense is far easier then offense, all ships need to do is stand in formation and open fire as ships come out of FTL. The simple and very practical solution was to just make ships with larger coil guns in order to fire from far outside the defenders range of effective fire. This is where Capital ships come in (See diagram assault and capital ships), with their extensive size they can carry extremely large coil guns, however due to the size of coil gun require to stay out of range capital ships need to be an order of magnitude bigger then other ships. This has lead to a split in thinking among factions: battleships vs dreadnoughts. Battleships being just large enough to be outside of range of enemy effective fire range, focused on being more economical by being easier to build and maintain, and Dreadnoughts which are massive and can fire from vastly outside of effective fire range. The thinking for this largely comes down to what your economic state and if you prefer building large amounts of ships to fight over vast territories but could be lost easier or a ship that is nearly untouchable to local defense but vastly more expensive.